‘Remarkable’: CNN’s Elie Hong Says Merrick Garland Called Trump’s ‘Bluff’ With Motion to Unseal Warrant

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Attorney General Merrick Garland called former President Donald Trump’s “bluff” by filing a motion to unseal a warrant for the search of his property Monday.

Garland announced at a Thursday press conference the Justice Department had decided to unseal the warrant and also a property receipt from the Mar-a-Lago raid.

Garland indirectly cited Trump and others’ strong criticism of the FBI for the decision to make the documents public.

“I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked,” Garland said. “The men and women of the FBI and the Justice Department are dedicated, patriotic public servants.”

Trump was given copies of both documents but has refrained from releasing them.

On CNN’s Newsroom, co-host Victor Blackwell asked Honig for his take of Garland’s presser and the revelation about the documents in question.

Honig concluded Trump is bluffing by playing the role of victim after his home was searched for documents sought by the National Archives.

Per the CNN analyst, Garland’s remarks were about calling him out.

Honig said:

This is a remarkable and unusual move, Victor. We essentially saw Merrick Garland call Donald Trump’s bluff. Here’s what I mean by that, in the wake of this search warrant, Donald Trump has two documents, he and his lawyers. One is the search warrant itself with whatever attachments, the other is this inventory or this receipt. Now those documents are going to have important information about the search.

These are the documents that people have been saying, well, if Donald Trump wants to make an issue of this, he should release them. What Merrick Garland just said is we, the DOJ, are going to release them. We’re going to go to the judge, we’re going to ask the judge to unseal documents, meaning make them available to the public.

Honig concluded, “So, essentially Merrick Garland just said, ‘Okay, Donald Trump, you’re not going to release them, we’re going to do it, we’re going to put those documents in front of the American public.'”

Watch above, via CNN.